Mindfulness is helpful, but only goes so far. This book gives the wider context, so anyone who has been practicing MBSR for a while and wants a wider and deeper perspective.

Thank you Watkins Publishing and Netgalley for this ARC,

I can never resist reading books on Mindfulness or Buddhism so this book was a winner for me.
The book was informative and easy to read. The book explains our interconnectedness really well and I hope that those not so familiar with this enjoy learning about this and other Buddhist premises laid out by Stephen Fulder, not necessarily As a religion but as a moral compass to guide each of us through a more wholesome, joyful life.

I appreciated the thought provoking questions in the book and will return to these again and again.

Thank you, a highly recommended book.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. The author of this gives a new view on spiritual but not just on the soul, but on the person as a whole. That is not something all spiritual or self-help books do. That is what made this book out for me. It made me take a look at something in my life and realize that I was better off without them in my life. That I have to care about me before I have to care about the rest of the world. I just have to be mindful in keeping things in balance.

What's Beyond Mindfulness is a excellent book in mindfulness. I will definitely keep this marked to read again. Well written.

Book: “What's Beyond Mindfulness: Waking Up to This Precious Life?” by Stephen Fulder, Watkins Media Ltd., 2019.

Book Review by Mary Mikawoz

Book available January 15, 2019

It has taken me quite some time to read this book as I had to keep getting re-acquainted to the book as I needed to keep putting it down for consideration and reflection The book is about mindfulness. It is about Buddhism being part of our way of life that can be inclusive of already understood religions like the Judeo-Christian ones. Buddhism, as a way of life, adds to these existing religions in a way that is not adverse to them and so it is a good adjunct.

Stephen Fulder has done a lot of things including having Israeli-Palestinian workshops trying to give peace a chance in the Middle East. People leave behind their pre-conceived notions of the “enemy” and come to see that there is a humanity and spirituality in all people.

I appreciated the appendix as it offered a question/answer format. I would have, in many ways, preferred if the entire book had been written this way. Buddhism some may say is easy to learn, however, I find it much more difficult to understand and therefore difficult to write and read about.

I appreciated quotes from spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi and the many Buddhist and Hindu spiritual leaders. The books goes into the stories of the bible like Jonah and Job, as well as into a number of psalms. Stephen also has written a number of poems throughout the book.

One quote early on I like is “We can live a wise inner life of reflection, creativity and inspiration, a life with wide horizons.” Another quote towards the middle that I like is “Consciousness is pure, it is our Buddha-nature, our pure being.” Finally, a quote near the end is that “The Sanskrit word samadhi is used for deep quiet, serenity and concentration, and it actually means to gather ourselves together. To bring ourselves back home.” The eight tenets of Buddhism were mentioned as well.

There is a lot of information provided but I am coming from a spiritual/New Age perspective so I found myself at odds with a number of the concepts. One example is karma. I disagree with what the books says. I do think it is about cause and effect. I do think that what you have done in a previous lifetimes affects you in your current life. Many situations that you are dealing with in life are as a result of either good intention or bad intention actions in past lives.

I appreciated the vocabulary of terms in the appendix in the back. I commend Stephen Fulder for the positive work he has done in society overall.

I am giving this book 3.5 stars out of 5 because it is informative but not in a structured way. Like I mentioned above, I think the book would have been more logical to understand and also more focussed if it were a question-answer process as the concepts are difficult to grasp due to our dualistic way of thinking.

Tags: Buddhism Buddha, Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi. Judeo-Christian, Jonah, Job, Psalm, karma, situations, dualism, cause and effect, spirit, spirituality, New Age, lifetime, consciousness, reflection, creativity, Sanskrit, Mary Mikawoz, Mikawoz, Book Review.

Stephen Fulder Ph.D has devoted his life to exploring inner and outer healing and spirituality, and this is just one of many of his insightful and comprehensive books to help others to bring a sense of peace and serenity to their lives in a world so chaotic. He is internationally renowned for his teachings of dharma (Buddhist practices) and meditation and in this, his latest book, he discusses the calm and order these practices can bring to even the most stressful lifestyle. The aim is to refocus the mind on the beauty of life and on once again enjoying simple, humble pleasures that we once all appreciated as children until our innocence was effectively taken away and responsibilities bestowed upon us.

What this book does differently is that it informs you of what to expect from incorporating these practices into your daily life and reminds you of all the wonders present in our often overbearingly cruel and stressful world. This includes but goes way beyond setting moments aside every so often to meditate and aims to change the way you see the world, and whilst this taught me, someone who has read in excess of twenty books on this subject, a variety of wonderful, new and different outlooks on topics, it is also a superb, clear and comprehensive introduction to those to which this book is the starting point.

This is well worth picking up to reinforce those aspects of this particular type of mindset for those who, like me, know this area relatively well, but it is a book I wish I'd have had access to at the moments in time I initiated my journey along this path purely as it stresses some excellent points that may seem obvious or simplistic but that we nevertheless often forget in the melee. It is also written in a casual, conversational and readable style that will make sense even to those with no prior knowledge of the mindfulness phenomenon.

Many thanks to Watkins Publishing for an ARC.